A friend told me about this wheel cleaner from Sonax that turns red as it interacts with brake dust, so I decided to get some. Rather than go with the regular Sonax Wheel Cleaner Full Effect, I opted for the “plus” version which is 30% stronger. Let me tell you, this wheel cleaner is nothing short of amazing! Let’s try it on my incredibly dirty front wheels – this car was not washed at all throughout this very nasty winter and BMW brake pads are notorious for depositing huge amounts of sticky, black brake dust over the wheels in days. You can also see the missing roundel after the winter.

This was the starting point and it was far worse than what the picture looks like – this picture was taken after I sprayed down the wheel to knock surface dirt off, then I let it dry for this review.

Sonax time!

I sprayed the Sonax on and watched it begin to turn a dark reddish/purple.

After a few minutes, I manually agitated the Sonax using a brush.

Then I sprayed it off.

This wheel was nasty and one application wasn’t enough. I probably didn’t wait long enough after the agitation step either. However, the wheel looks much, much better than it did! I followed up with a manual clean; the little remaining dirt (with the exception of some deep crud that was actually there from last year) came off with ease.

Check out how it cleaned around the valve stem & the hidden areas around the lug nuts.I wasn’t able to get to these areas by hand!

And the car looking sharp after the first, quick wash of the season.

Up next – new wheel roundels (logos) and headlight lenses! The winter was hard on the car this year 🙁

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